Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin

The Western Congo Basin (WCB) defined here as comprising Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo is being rapidly emptied of its wild animals, with alarming rates of poaching in all four countries. High levels of poaching have numerous deleterious effects for sustain...

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Main Author:	World Bank
Format:	Report
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	PROTECTED AREA POACHING SUBSISTENCE HUNTING WILDLIFE PROTECTION WILDLIFE TOURISM TOURISM BUSHMEAT TRADE POVERTY FOREST MANAGEMENT
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/787301528984205474/Before-it-s-too-late-deriving-sustainable-value-from-wildlife-in-the-Western-Congo-Basin http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30035

id	okr-10986-30035
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-300352021-05-25T09:15:21Z Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin World Bank PROTECTED AREA POACHING SUBSISTENCE HUNTING WILDLIFE PROTECTION WILDLIFE TOURISM TOURISM BUSHMEAT TRADE POVERTY FOREST MANAGEMENT The Western Congo Basin (WCB) defined here as comprising Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo is being rapidly emptied of its wild animals, with alarming rates of poaching in all four countries. High levels of poaching have numerous deleterious effects for sustainable development. In the WCB, efforts to protect wildlife have focused heavily on the establishment and management of protected areas, often within the context of a landscape-based approach that attempts to engage nearby communities and other land users. The low perceived value of forest wildlife resources for local communities is partially attributable to a lack of economic opportunities currently derivable from the sustainable management of wildlife assets. In a bid to help the WCB countries address this downward spiral, this study identifies approaches that can enhance the economic value of wildlife resources for local communities and governments as a contribution to poverty reduction, economic development, and conservation. It aims to do so at the regional and national levels as a single country cannot address this crisis given the fluidity of both borders and wildlife in the region. Naturally, the set and sequence of solutions most appropriate in any given setting will depend on a number of country-specific conditions. Nevertheless, the majority of the recommendations in this report apply to all four WCB countries. In that spirit, the study first provides an overview of the poaching crisis, using elephants as a case study to illustrate the scale of the problem (chapter 2). It then proceeds to analyze who the poachers are (chapter 3) to better understand drivers of poaching, while Chapter 4 analyzes the policy framework. Chapter 5 proposes approaches for creating economic value from wildlife, sharing it with communities, and creating the necessary underlying governance conditions, providing best-practice examples from other parts of the world. Chapter 6 presents conclusions. 2018-07-18T14:43:10Z 2018-07-18T14:43:10Z 2018-06 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/787301528984205474/Before-it-s-too-late-deriving-sustainable-value-from-wildlife-in-the-Western-Congo-Basin http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30035 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Environmental Study Economic & Sector Work Africa Central Africa Cameroon Central African Republic Congo, Republic of Gabon
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	PROTECTED AREA POACHING SUBSISTENCE HUNTING WILDLIFE PROTECTION WILDLIFE TOURISM TOURISM BUSHMEAT TRADE POVERTY FOREST MANAGEMENT
spellingShingle	PROTECTED AREA POACHING SUBSISTENCE HUNTING WILDLIFE PROTECTION WILDLIFE TOURISM TOURISM BUSHMEAT TRADE POVERTY FOREST MANAGEMENT World Bank Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin
geographic_facet	Africa Central Africa Cameroon Central African Republic Congo, Republic of Gabon
description	The Western Congo Basin (WCB) defined here as comprising Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo is being rapidly emptied of its wild animals, with alarming rates of poaching in all four countries. High levels of poaching have numerous deleterious effects for sustainable development. In the WCB, efforts to protect wildlife have focused heavily on the establishment and management of protected areas, often within the context of a landscape-based approach that attempts to engage nearby communities and other land users. The low perceived value of forest wildlife resources for local communities is partially attributable to a lack of economic opportunities currently derivable from the sustainable management of wildlife assets. In a bid to help the WCB countries address this downward spiral, this study identifies approaches that can enhance the economic value of wildlife resources for local communities and governments as a contribution to poverty reduction, economic development, and conservation. It aims to do so at the regional and national levels as a single country cannot address this crisis given the fluidity of both borders and wildlife in the region. Naturally, the set and sequence of solutions most appropriate in any given setting will depend on a number of country-specific conditions. Nevertheless, the majority of the recommendations in this report apply to all four WCB countries. In that spirit, the study first provides an overview of the poaching crisis, using elephants as a case study to illustrate the scale of the problem (chapter 2). It then proceeds to analyze who the poachers are (chapter 3) to better understand drivers of poaching, while Chapter 4 analyzes the policy framework. Chapter 5 proposes approaches for creating economic value from wildlife, sharing it with communities, and creating the necessary underlying governance conditions, providing best-practice examples from other parts of the world. Chapter 6 presents conclusions.
format	Report
author	World Bank
author_facet	World Bank
author_sort	World Bank
title	Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin
title_short	Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin
title_full	Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin
title_fullStr	Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin
title_full_unstemmed	Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin
title_sort	before it’s too late : deriving sustainable value from wildlife in the western congo basin
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/787301528984205474/Before-it-s-too-late-deriving-sustainable-value-from-wildlife-in-the-Western-Congo-Basin http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30035
_version_	1764470782479564800

Before It’s Too Late : Deriving Sustainable Value from Wildlife in the Western Congo Basin

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